Southward, Ho!
by DinerGuy
Summary: A recently released prisoner is out for blood. Can Annie and the team stop him before more people die?
1. Chapter 1

_This took a completely different turn than what I had originally planned for it to be. But I'm rather attached to it now. I hope you all enjoy it as well!_

_Disclaimer: Any and all recognizable characters and objects/places are not mine. No profit (other than entertainment and amusement) is being made and no copyright infringement is intended. The only things I can claim are my original characters and possibly Big Texas Burgers._

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**Waco, Texas**

It was a normal afternoon at Big Texas Burgers. The late lunch patrons had finished their meals, and the early dinner crowd had not yet arrived. There were a few people grabbing a bite to eat, but the dining room was sparsely populated at three pm.

"Hey, Joey, you done with those dishes yet?" one of the cooks called out as he passed by the sink. He winked at the younger man. "Don't want you to have to stay late tonight; might miss that hot date you've been talkin' about."

"Yeah, yeah," Joey shot back, his blue eyes twinkling as he laughed good-naturedly. "At least I don't have trash duty."

The cook, a short, pudgy, balding man in his late forties, rolled his eyes as he looked down at the plastic sack in his hand. "Can't argue with ya there." He crossed the room to the back door, using his empty left hand to turn the knob.

Stepping outside, he blinked against the bright afternoon sun as he made his way to the dumpster several yards from the building. He pushed open the door on the side of the metal container, depositing the trash bag inside, then sliding the door shut again.

As he turned to head back into the restaurant, a man rounded the corner of the building. "Hey, Ted," he greeted. Even though his voice was filled with familiarity, it wasn't the normal friendly tone a long-lost friend would use. His expression matched the malice in his voice.

"Jason!" the cook responded in surprise. His eyes widened and he stopped in his tracks, glancing nervously towards the back entrance of the restaurant. "It's been awhile. How're you?"

"Oh, just about how'd you expect," Jason shrugged. A gust of wind blew by just then, though it hardly ruffled his long, greasy hair under his battered black cowboy hat. His eyes darkened. "How do you think I've been? Waiting around in a cell for the past ten years, all by myself!" His voice rose with the last sentence.

Ted raised his hands in front of him. "Now, now, Jason, you have to understand –"

A shot broke the air, the surroundings stilling for a moment as the echo reverberated off the nearby walls.

Lowering the pistol, Jason smirked at the body lying in the dirt. "Understand what?" he asked, before turning and strolling back around the corner the way he had come.

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"Somebody's been busy," US Marshal Annie Frost remarked as she passed by her partner's desk.

Her partner, Jimmy Godfrey, looked up from the file he was reading. "What's that?"

"You, your desk." She smirked. "Most of the time, you couldn't find a needle in that haystack to save your life."

"Hey, I know where to find things when I need them," he returned with a grin.

"Uh-huh."

"Guys," Marco Martinez interrupted as he strode past them. "We've got a fugitive."

The team was soon gathered in the conference room, going over the information on their newest case. Annie had reviewed the details while the rest of the team joined them, and she now gave the others the run-down on their target.

"This is Jason Kendrick," she said, bringing up a mug shot on the large wall screen. It showed a man in his late thirties, with stringy sandy hair to his shoulders and piercing gray eyes. "He's been in prison in Dallas for ten years on a drug charge. Was released last week, and already he's shot two people."

"Does he have any connection to the people he killed?" Luke Watson asked, dark eyes narrowing.

"Yeah, as a matter of fact." Annie's blonde ponytail swung as she turned back to face the screen. She clicked another key and brought up two more mug shots. "Theodore Miller and Peter Thomas. Both were suspected of being associates of Kendrick's. They've both had multiple drug charges in the past, but neither was arrested when Kendrick was, and neither have served more than four or five years.

"Now, Thomas was shot yesterday morning, just before noon in Georgetown. Before four that afternoon, Miller was dead in Waco."

"Any witnesses?" Marco spoke up. The Hispanic's brow was furrowed in thought. "Do we have anyone who can tie him to the scenes?"

"Yeah." Annie nodded. "We've got video footage from the restaurant where Miller worked. And there's a couple in Georgetown who saw Thomas' murder from across the street."

"Positive ID's?" Jimmy asked.

"Mhmm." Annie's eyes darted back and forth as she surveyed the screen. "All right. So I'm Jason Kendrick …" She fell silent for a moment, slipping into Kendrick's persona as she usually did when she needed to get a lead on a criminal. "I've been in jail for the past ten years."

"It's an awful long time to be locked away," Jimmy put in. He always jumped in when Annie began roleplaying, trying to help nudge her thoughts in the right direction.

"Yeah, it is … And within a week of release, I've already shot two of my old buddies from before I was put away." Annie closed her eyes for a moment, then reopened them as an idea struck her. "I've had an awful long time to think while I'm in there. Daisy," she turned to the other woman, "check if either of these two guys testified against Kendrick."

"Got it," Daisy Ogbaa replied, heading for the door.

"You're thinking it's revenge?" Luke asked.

"It's as good a reason as any," Jimmy replied. "Why else would you track down your old friends and shoot them in cold blood?"

"Luke, I want you to check for any other known associates of Kendrick's, especially those as close to him as these two were. We need to know if there are any other potential victims and where they are."

He nodded in acknowledgment and exited the room.

Within ten minutes, both Luke and Daisy had returned. Daisy handed several sheets of paper to Annie, who spread them out on the table for Jimmy to see.

"Looks like you were right," Daisy told her. "Thomas and Miller both are on the list of witnesses in Kendrick's trial ten years ago."

Luke, who had been reading the lists over Annie and Jimmy's shoulders, spoke up. "I recognize one of these other names, too." He handed Annie his own piece of paper. "Roberto Flores was also one of Kendrick's known associates."

"They got three of his gang to testify against him?" Marco commented. "Must've been some deal they cut."

"Looks like the prosecution also tried to get Bill Yancey on the stand, too, but couldn't find him," Annie mused as she finished reading the paper Luke had given her. "He was in the drug ring, too."

"This looks an awful lot like a set-up to me," Jimmy told her. "The younger, newer guy takes the fall, and the rest of them get away nearly scott-free."

"I bet Kendrick wasn't too happy about being their scapegoat," Daisy said.

Annie nodded. "And now he's making them pay. We've got locations on these other men; let's get police to their houses. I want to know the second anyone who even looks like Kendrick shows up within five miles of them."


	2. Chapter 2

**San Marcos, Texas**

"Roberto!" The shout punctuated the mid morning quiet of the neighborhood.

Roberto Flores brushed aside a few loose strands of dark hair, looking up from the truck engine on which he was working. After a split second of confusion, he grinned in recognition. "Jason! Long time, no see. Glad you finally go out."

"Yeah," Jason leaned against the corner of the garage, nonchalantly sticking a hand in his jacket pocket. He still wore the battered black cowboy hat, but his hair had been cut short, and he sported a dark pair of sunglasses. "How've you been, Roberto?"

"Oh, you know, same as always." Roberto chuckled, seeming a little more nervous than he had a moment before. "You, uh, you all right? No … uh, no hard feelings?"

"Hard feelings?" He rolled his eyes. "What makes you think I'd have hard feelings?" Before Roberto could say more, Jason continued, "I mean, it's not like you had me put away for ten years or anything, right?"

"Whoa, hey, man. I thought everything was cool between us." Roberto managed another nervous chuckle. Unseen by Jason, he inched his hand along his tool bench, grasping a heavy wrench. "I got out of the drug game, remember?"

Pulling his hand from his pocket, Jason pointed a small pistol at Roberto's head. "You left me to rot! Rot in a prison cell for years, and you helped put me there!" The corner of his mouth quirked up in a savage grin. "Give me one good reason I shouldn't drop you where you stand."

"Look, man …" Roberto trailed off, then suddenly lugged the wrench as hard as he could at Jason, diving behind the truck as he did so.

A howl of pain told him the tool had connected with something, but he didn't stop to find out for sure. He scrambled for the door to his house as quickly as possible. He had never been more grateful for needing to clean out his garage than he was at that moment. Reaching the door, which he had left open in order to hear his phone if it rang, he crouched, then sprang to his feet and dove through the opening.

Several shots cracked through his garage, pinging as they hit various metal objects on the walls. One burrowed into the house door while another managed to find its mark in Roberto's shoulder. He grunted in pain, nearly falling to the ground before managing to stumble into the house far enough to slam and deadbolt the door.

He didn't wait for the inevitable thudding that would come as Jason tried to get into the house after him but stumbled towards his bedroom, his left arm clutching his injured shoulder. Disregarding the blood trail he was leaving behind himself, he frantically pawed through his dresser drawer in search of his own firearm. Just as he located it, sirens began wailing outside. Exhaling in relief, he grasped the gun and stumbled back towards the door.

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"Looks like Kendrick got a little more than he bargained for at this place," Annie observed, studying the blood on the floor of Roberto's garage.

"Techs say this here's Kendrick's," Jimmy pointed. "That by the door is Flores'."

Annie bent to study the blood-smeared metal wrench on the ground by the first puddle, then made her way around the garage to take it all in. There were two bullet holes in the wall by the tool bench, two in the door and door frame, and a smear of blood on the ground right inside the door, along with some spray on the door itself. "So Flores is working on his truck, Kendrick shows up, only Flores chucks a wrench at him, buying enough time to escape, but getting shot in the process."

"Hey." Luke jogged up to join them. "The neighbors say they saw a white van leaving the scene right around the time the sirens started."

"PD missed grabbing him by only a few minutes," Jimmy commented.

"We got a license plate number?" Annie wanted to know.

"Yeah. Marco ran it, came back as stolen from a parking lot in Waco a few hours ago."

"Well, that certainly fits with our timeline. We got a BOLO out on that van?"

"No need. We just got the call that it was found abandoned in a parking lot a few miles south of here," Luke told her. "But another car's missing from that lot, this one a black pickup. Older model, so no way to track it, but we've got a BOLO out on that."

"Good." Annie nodded in approval.

"You said south of here?" Jimmy raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah."

Jimmy turned to Annie. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

"That Kendrick's headed after Yancey now?" his partner replied. "Yeah, I am. Let's get moving. He's got a head start, but we might be able to catch him."

The Marshals hurried back to their vehicles, pulling from the curb and heading towards San Marcos as quickly as possible.

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**Kirby, Texas**

Jason was mad. No, not just mad. Furious.

It was his perfect plan. He'd been plotting since his so-called partners put him away while they got off to do whatever they pleased with their lives. While they'd been off living wherever they chose, doing anything that struck their fancy, he was stuck behind bars. He'd been planning his revenge for a long time, and now it had been ruined by a stupid wrench.

No, he corrected himself. Not ruined. Simply … interrupted. He'd get back into the swing of things soon enough. He had one more stop before he could go find her …

"Sir? You all right?"

His thoughts interrupted, Jason looked up to meet the gaze of the cute little waitress. "What's that?" His voice sounded nasally even to him, and he mentally cussed Roberto's throwing arm.

"Are you all right?" she repeated, Texas drawl obvious in her voice.

"Yeah." He saw her attempting not to stare at his face and offered a small grin. "My friend can throw a mean baseball."

"Can I get ya somethin'?" she asked. "Sandwich? Coffee? Ice pack?"

He chuckled. "All of the above would be great."

"Sure thing. Be right back." She winked at him and scurried back to the kitchen.

Jason let his thoughts wander again, until they were yanked back to the present by the sound of the television in the corner.

"… Kendrick, who was just released from jail last week, has already …"

He sat up a little straighter. This was not good. He could still work around it, but it was definitely not good. They even had an updated sketch of him.

By the time the waitress returned, the booth was vacant and Jason was nowhere to be found. She glanced around in bewilderment, mug of coffee in one hand and bag of ice in the other, until her attention was drawn to the television screen in the corner.

She barely saved the cup of coffee, and her jaw followed the ice pack towards the floor. "Oh my word …"

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"We've got a hit on Kendrick," Annie reported, ending the call on her cell. "A waitress at a diner in Kirby ID'd him from the news report. She didn't have any info other than that he had stopped in and that his nose looked like it'd been broken."

"The wrench," Daisy nodded from the driver's seat.

"Mhmm," Annie acknowledged. "I'd say it definitely looks like he's headed in Yancey's direction. Bill Yancey didn't testify against him, but he might be carrying his vendetta out to its end."

"We've got Premont PD posted at his house. Supposedly he's been out of town for a week or two."

"Good. Maybe we can catch him there." Annie dialed Jimmy's number to update him. "We'll meet them at the house."


	3. Chapter 3

**Premont, Texas**

"We missed him." Annie smacked the hood in frustration. "I thought we instructed PD to just keep an eye on things, not scare Kendrick off.

"He was leaving. I guess they figured the best thing to do was to try and apprehend him." Jimmy sounded just as disappointed as his partner. After a moment, he spoke up. "Okay, so if he's left town, what's next? Does he wait and come back?"

Annie thought about that, then shook her head. "Nah, he didn't have much of a bone to pick with Yancey anyway. The man didn't testify against him at the trial, so he has no reason to kill him."

Just then, Marco hurried up to the pair, an excited look on his face. "He switched cars again."

"He did?" Annie stood from where she had been leaning against the car.

"And our fugitive decided to upgrade. Only it turns out he stole a rental. Red Kia Forte We're tracking it now."

The trio headed over to the other vehicle, where Daisy was bent over a laptop sitting in the open trunk. She saw them approaching and raised a thumbs-up sign. "It looks like he's headed almost due south, towards Pleasanton."

"Pleasanton? Now what's Kendrick want in Pleasanton?" Annie mused, staring off into the distance in thought.

"Or south of it," Jimmy reminded her. "He's been heading in a southern direction since Waco. Georgetown, San Marcos, Seguin ..." he trailed off.

"… Kirby, and now Premont," Annie finished. She studied the map on Daisy's computer, her brow furrowed in thought. "Okay, I'm Jason Kendrick," she muttered, getting inside the fugitive's head again. "I've gone after my pals from the old days because they set me up for jail time."

"Now that you've done what you can to get revenge on the people who sent you to jail, what do you do?" Jimmy prompted.

Annie snapped her fingers. "Edinburg." She strode over to the other vehicle, hurriedly returning with a file, through which she quickly began flipping.

"Edinburg?" Luke repeated, slightly confused. "Why's Kendrick headed to Edinburg?"

"What thing's close to impossible to forget?" Annie pulled out a small rectangular photo of a smiling brunette in a red dress.

Jimmy's eyes lit up. "Your first love."

"Ashley Whitaker." Annie nodded. "She was his girl from high school until he got arrested the first time. Apparently she had a change of heart and cut off all communication with him."

"And now that he's out, he wants to make it right," Daisy reasoned. "He wants to get her back."

Marco spoke up then. "You think he's running for the border?" he asked.

"Edinburg's only 19 miles from Mexico," Annie reasoned. "I'm guessing he's gonna try and get her to go with him. He's on the run, and it looks like he's been taking back roads so far." She took another look at the computer screen, then straightened. "Let's make sure we get there before he does."

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**Edinburg, Texas**

They made better time than expected and arrived at Ashley Whitaker's house in just over an hour. The team piled out of their vehicles, grabbing their gear and heading for the door.

Annie rapped on the door. "US Marshals; open the door!" She was about to knock again when it swung open.

"What's going on?" A confused Ashley barely had time to take in the guns and vests before Annie had pulled her through the open door.

"Ma'am, is anyone else in the house?" one of the other Marshals asked her as the rest of the team poured through the front door.

Shouts of "Clear!" rang through the small house as Annie, Jimmy, and the others checked each room for signs of Kendrick. Once they had been through the entire residence, Annie turned to Ashley, who had been allowed back inside.

"Ashley, have you seen Jason Kendrick lately?"

"Jason?" Ashley shook her head emphatically. "I saw him on the news … You think he's coming here?"

"We have good reason to believe he's going to try and get you to go with him. Have you heard from him at all?" Annie asked, looking the other woman in the eye.

Ashley swallowed before replying. "No. No, he hasn't called or anything. Do you ... Can you stop him? I heard about what he did … to those men, and I just … I don't want him out there again."

"We're gonna do all we can to catch him," Annie assured her.

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As the team made their way out the front door and towards their vehicles in the driveway, Annie glanced up and down the street. It was more out of habit than anything else, but it paid off this time.

A red car was just turning onto the street. It braked to a stop before spinning in a 180 degree turn and speeding back towards the highway. Annie shouted to Jimmy and they leaped into the SUV, pulling out in pursuit of the car. The other members of their team piled into another vehicle and followed them as quickly as possible.

Jimmy was in the driver's seat, and he floored the accelerator, only slowing slightly when they reached the turn onto the main street. Thankfully, traffic seemed to be relatively light, and the two Marshals easily spotted Kendrick's car down the road. The man seemed to have spotted them, and he increased his speed.

"Can't they ever just surrender without a fight?" Jimmy cracked, shaking his head and pushing the pedal even closer to the floor.

After a few minutes, they had caught up with the Forte, and Jimmy brought his larger vehicle up beside Kendrick. The man didn't look their way, simply hunched over the wheel and sped up more.

Another SUV pulled out onto the road ahead of the two vehicles, turning into the lane down which Kendrick was speeding. It looked like there would be a head-on collision, but a the last moment, the fugitive slammed on his brakes, wrenching the wheel to the side. The car still had a lot of speed behind it, and the sudden turn sent it careening off the edge of the road.

The grass beside the shoulder was flat, and the Forte rolled along several yards before jerking to a halt. Kendrick flung the door open; stumbling out, he threw a wild look over his shoulder at the Marshals hurriedly exiting their vehicles. He then turned and fled across the field.

"Jason Kendrick!" Annie yelled. "US Marshals!" She and Jimmy gave chase.

Kendrick had a head start, but he was running all out. After a few moments, he began to slow as his adrenaline died down. Annie put on a final burst of speed, catching up to the man enough to tackle him to the ground.

He came up swinging, but she ducked and took a swing of her own. Hers was much more well-aimed, and Kendrick staggered backwards. One left hook and he was sprawled on the ground.

Jimmy pulled up beside them, yanking Kendrick to his feet as soon as Annie had snapped the cuffs on the man. "Good job, Boots," he grinned at her.

She smiled in gratitude, and the three of them made their way back to the road. Marco, Daisy, and Luke were waiting by the vehicles.

"Luke! What have I told you about playing chicken with a criminal?" Jimmy scolded teasingly as they approached.

"Wait, what? That was Daisy!" the younger man protested.

The others laughed. Jimmy turned to Daisy and raised an eyebrow.

"Only play when you can win." Daisy winked at Luke before climbing back behind the wheel.

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Later that night, when they were starting their second round at the bar, Jimmy turned to Annie. "You did good today, Boots."

She tilted her head in acknowledgement. "So did you."

"Mm." He watched the others, intent on a game of pool, and didn't reply immediately. "How'd you know Kendrick was going to go after his girl? They'd been apart an awful long time. What's to say he wasn't just breaking for the border?"

Annie studied the bottle in her hands, swirling it around and taking another drink before answering. "Because he reminded me of someone … I knew he'd try to get his girl back one last time."

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_That's all, folks! I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I did writing it. :)_


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